Afterglow
by brazzo
Summary: Cat's always been affectionate. Sam always used to reject her. Now, in a time of need, Sam's finally starting to understand the appeal...
I don't own any of the characters, places, or things in this story.

"Ow!" Cat was awakened by an epic crashing sound, followed by the low hiss of someone in pain. In the darkness, she could make out a figure sprawled on the floor of the bedroom she shared with her roommate. The window was wide open. It was 3 in the morning.

"Whazzit, whazzhappening?" She slurred out, mind still slow from sleep. She jumped out of bed and grabbed the closest weapon-like thing she could find - a plastic prop lobster she'd used in a play last spring at Hollywood Arts. Bravely wielding her prop lobster, she yelled to her roommate.

"Sam! Sam, get up! We're being burgled!" She banished her lobster blindly at the intruder.

"Ughh, it's me." Sam replied from the floor, rubbing the shin she'd just banged from an unsuccessful attempt at sneaking in through the window.

"I don't know a "Me"!" Cat cried out, still in defense mode. "That sounds Asian! Sam, wake up!" She readjusted the grip on her weapon. "I'm warning you, I've got a lobster and I'm not afraid to use it!"

"Cat," sighed the blonde, "it's ME, Sam. Now drop the lobster and help me up would ya?"

"Oh!" Cat yelped, carefully setting her weapon back on the table, gently patting it on its head before turning to help her roommate up from the ground. "Why are you B and E-ing into our own house?" She asked.

"Because I forgot my keys and you locked the door." Sam turned to close the window, limping and wincing from the fresh pain in her leg.

"Oh. Where were you? Why were you out so late?"

"Don't worry about it, kid. Just go back to sleep." Sam had tried to sneak in unnoticed for this very reason. She didn't want to have to answer any questions. Not tonight.

"Kk." said Cat, much calmer now that there was no real emergency. "Is you leg okay?"

"Yeah, its fine. I just hit it on the windowsill. And then I fell. And now I'm going to sleep."

As Sam pulled back the comforter on her bed, Cat spotted something dark red and glistening on Sam's leg.

"Sam you're bleeding!" She gasped, running to her friend and reaching out to hold her arm. "We need to perform first aid!"

"Caaaat." Sam groaned. "It's fine." She used a dirty towel from the floor to wipe away the blood from a small cut on her shin. "See? Now go to bed so I can too."

"If we don't disinfect it it could get infected! Sam, do ya wanna end up with gangrene or somethin'? Huh? Well do ya?" She rushed to the bathroom, flipping on all the lights along the way.

"Uhhgh." Sam whined. Cat returned with a first aid kit so large it was on rollers. Marissa Benson would definitely approve.

"Where do you people get this stuff?" Sam asked rhetorically.

" " Cat replied. "Okay now you sit here," she directed the blonde to the edge of her bed. "And let Dr. Cat take care of everything."

Sam rolled her eyes as Cat slapped on a pair of rubber gloves. "Would you like a topical anesthetic?" She asked, batting her eyelashes and pulling out a spray bottle of peroxide to clean the wound.

"Cat, no."

"Okay, but let me tell ya, this stuff STINGS." She hovered the bottle above Sam's scrape. "You ready? One...two..."

"Cat." Sam chided.

"Ok three!" Cat replied quickly, spritzing Sam's injured leg with the peroxide. Sam flinched at the stinging sensation in her leg.

"Toldja it stings." The redhead mused.

"Are we done? Mama needs some sleep."

"Wait!" Cat pulled out a box of Hello Kitty band aids.

"No way." Sam deadpanned, standing. She flopped down onto her bed face first, not worrying about changing into pajamas. "I'm sleeping now."

"Ok, ok." Cat conceded, putting the first aid stuff away, shutting off the lights and returning to her own bed. A long moment of silence passed and just as Sam thought she was in the clear and began to drift to sleep, the redhead across the room broke the quiet.

"Hey Sam?" She asked, voice soft and girly.

"What?" Sam groaned. She desperately wanted the sweet release of sleep.

"Where were you?" asked Cat. There was genuine concern in her question. It was very late and Sam had never gone out all night like this before.

"I was having tea with the Vice President." Sam snarked, immediately regretting her venomous tone. Her roommate legitimately cared for her, and seeing how rare it was for people to actually feel that way towards the feisty blonde who had a penchant for beating people up with a sock full of butter, Sam realized she shouldn't be so harsh with the girl.

"Sam." Was all Cat said. It wasn't accusatory or chiding, just a simple statement. For some reason, hearing her name like this sent a quick bolt of electricity through Sam's veins. Her voice was much softer this time.

"Today just happens to be a day I'm not very fond of, kid." She sighed. "I went to the wharf to watch the fishermen unload tomorrow's catch. Watching other people work helps me think." She hoped this answer was satisfactory. A long pause went by and just as Sam thought the conversation was finally over, Cat spoke again.

"Is it 'cause it's your friendshipaversary with your friend in Italy? Carly?"

Hearing her ex-best friend's name spoken aloud for the first time in nearly half a year was completely and utterly jarring to Sam. She could physically feel her blood pressure rising. Her palms started to sweat and a hot, itchy feeling crawled its way up her neck from her chest. How is it possible for her body to react this way from just hearing her name? She vaguely recognized the feelings. Panic mixed with guilt mixed with something rooted deep in her belly, an emotion she had never quite pinpointed. And of course anger. With Sam, there was always anger.

"No." she denied quickly. Her mind was sort of fogged over from her miniature panic attack. Is that what that was? A panic attack from hearing the name of an old friend? Sam thought to herself. Though she knew that even in questioning herself she wasn't being completely honest. Carly wasn't an 'old friend', she was always something much, much more to Sam. Though Sam still struggled to identify what.

Something registered with her that snapped the fog away.

"Hey wait. How'd you know about that?" She questioned her roommate. Sam never brought up the brunette to Cat in the 5 months they'd lived together and all Cat could possibly know was that she's the Carly of iCarly. An old friend who now lived in Italy. That is all the two roommates had ever established. How in the world could she have known about her and Carly's 'friendshipaversary', as they referred to the anniversary of the day they became best friends some 9 years ago.

"I uhhh..." Began Cat, nervousness evident in her voice. If she knew anything about her brash, blonde roomie, it was that she was very prone to random outbursts of violence. Cat liked to avoid being on the receiving end of these outbursts, though she oftentimes found it to be very difficult.

"Cat."

"Ok! I was using your PearBook cause mine died and yours was just sitting there all alive and I don't know where my charger is and so I used it to watch NewsNewsNewsNews with Tammy Yanks cause I had a current events project for homework and your calendar popped up at midnight with an alert  
and it said 'Me and Carly's Friendshipaversary - don't mess it up this time' and I just figured that's why you were out. Cause you were missing your friend." She finally stopped, gasping for breath. Sam knew the girl was a talker, but damn. She slowly mulled over everything Cat said and took her time in responding. She could feel Cat's anxiety at the situation carry across the room in waves.

"Your charger is in the microwave."

"Sam, please don't be mad at me I swear I wasn't snooping and- wait a minute. The microwave?"

"I put it in there so the dog we were pet-sitting yesterday wouldn't chew it up."

"Oh. But... why the microwave?"

"Cause the bedroom was too far!" Sam exclaimed as if it were painfully obvious. She sighed again and rolled over so she could just make out her friend across the room. _Might as well, I'll never get any sleep otherwise._ She thought.

"Yes, I did go out because I was sad about me and Carly. We don't talk much at all anymore and even when we do it's only through email or SplashFace. And it just makes me sad to think she's off in Italy living it up and happy to forget everything we built over the years and I'm here unable to stop thinking about how much I miss her all the time."

"Is that why you're so regressive?" Cat asked her, that softness back in her voice.

"Aggressive." Sam corrected her. "And no, I've always been that way. Well, maybe less so when she was around but still."

Cat felt sorry for her roommate. She'd never really given thought to the life Sam had to leave behind when she came riding into Los Angeles on her motorcycle. What was the timeline there? It seemed like she left straight after Carly left for Italy and immediately became entwined in Cat's life. Had the blonde even had time to grieve her friend's departure? And what did it say about Sam's relationships that the only person seemingly holding her to Seattle was this one girl?

"Do you miss her?"

"More than she misses me." It was such an out of character remark for the tough, tomboyish girl. It surprised both of them.

"Well I can't speak for Carly, but I would miss you a lot if I moved away. I miss you when I'm at school."

Sam's voice was the smallest Cat had ever heard it when she finally replied. "Really?"

"Yeah!" Cat smiled big, hugging her purple giraffe close. "You're like, my best friend. It used to be Jade, and not that I love her any less or anything, but with you- You get me, I think."

"I do." Sam affirmed. She thought of all the wacky, crazy things her scatterbrained friend had done since they began their adventure together. "Most times." She amended. There was a palpable pause before Cat burst into her signature laugh. Sam couldn't help but join in despite her depressed mood; Cat's laugh is just too infectious to deny.

As their laughter died, Sam began to contemplate hard on the two extremely contrasting girls she had become friends with in her lifetime. Carly always has and likely always will have the biggest piece of her heart. Even though Sam often felt abandoned and betrayed, she knew deep down that Carly really needed this time on her own with her dad. It's what she'd been craving all of these years. It was the one thing Sam had never been able to give her. That fact saddened the blonde more than she thought it should. Not sure if Cat was even still awake, she finally spoke aloud a feeling she'd had deep in the pit of her stomach from the first time she'd truly considered Carly her friend, way back on the playground when they were 8 years old, only a short time after Sam had introduced herself by stealing Carly's lunch.

"I think I loved her." She said it as if she had never realized if before and, truly, she hadn't. Maybe her body had known, her subconscious, but she had never mindfully come to that conclusion. Probably because at the time, it would've been just too much to bear. She had been unintentionally protecting herself and her most important relationship all of these years. She began to cry.

Cat had remained awake, and heard Sam's confession, but was at a loss for the right words. Did Sam really just admit she had been in love with her same-sex best friend? Was Sam gay? Bi? Or did she just mean 'love' in a friendship sort of way? That couldn't be it, why would that realization cause her to cry? That kind of platonic love is clearly implied when you're best friends with somebody.

Cat couldn't stand to sit idly and listen to her friend suffer. Not knowing any other way to help or comfort Sam, she got up. Purple giraffe in hand, she walked over to her roommates side of their bedroom, pulled back the covers, and lied down next to the girl she'd come to care for so much over the past several months. Cat slipped her arms are Sam's middle and hugged her close. Sam froze at the contact at first, but soon relaxed into Cat's arms. She felt herself calming down, their heartbeats falling into sync. She hadn't felt closeness like this since Carly, and though it wasn't quite the same, it was still comforting. Sam sighed and scooted closer into Cat. She could feel the younger girl smiling into the back of her neck. Is it weird to spoon with your friends? Sam really didn't care.

Nothing else was said as the two girls found comfort in each other and both drifted into sleep.


End file.
